Village getting ready for 30th Bigfork arts festival

By JACOB DORAN / Bigfork Eagle

There's something about turning 30 that makes it an important milestone in people's lives. You're no longer twenty-something, but you're not yet 40. There's an air of maturity but not yet being "over the hill."

It's doubtful, though, that with its present popularity, Bigfork's Festival of the Arts will be "over the hill" ten years from now—and why should it, since festivals have a way of outliving the people who got them started?

The festival has definitely matured and will celebrate its 30th year August 2-3.

Every year, more and more people flood Bigfork galleries and other establishments during the Festival of the Arts to celebrate the arts and the culture that surrounds it, here in what some people call the centerpiece of Flathead Lake. The popular festival fills the main streets of town with a fine selection of art, crafts, music and entertainment—and, of course food, because no festival worth its salt is complete without it.

For the first full weekend of August, Electric Avenue becomes a literal river of faces, flowing in both directions and spilling into Grand Drive, River and Mill Streets and Osborn Avenue Whether it's the arts or the cornucopia of food vendors and entertainment that contribute to the festival atmosphere, people are drawn downtown to experience an event that has come to define the current character of Bigfork.

This year, with 30 years under its belt, the Bigfork Festival of the Arts celebrates the distinction of being one of the oldest art festivals in Montana and arguably one of the most popular festivals in the Northwest.

Of course, the Festival of the Arts means big business for local artists, as well. Many exhibitors make no secret of the fact that the festival is their favorite show of the summer and, for some, the whole year. And, with the popularity the festival has achieved, it has become a money maker for more than just artists. Most of the businesses in town, and more than a few enterprising people from elsewhere, benefit from the festival's success.

It's no wonder the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce looks forward to the Festival of the Arts, which was first proposed in May of 1978 when members of the Bigfork community began discussing how to draw people to Bigfork during the summer tourist season.

Not surprisingly, the usual movers and shakers were involved. George and Elna Darrow, Jim Manley, Gerald and Sally Askevold, Don Thomson, David Shaner and Jeff Wilson conceived the idea of a large-scale gathering in downtown Bigfork.

If there's one thing the group had no shortage of—especially 30 years ago—it was the energy and vision to make it happen. And they did.

The group decided that what the community needed was an arts festival to showcase Bigfork's art

community, settling on the first weekend in August as an ideal time to hold the event. They also decided to make the Bigfork Summer Playhouse building fund the initial beneficiary of the festival.

Realizing that there wouldn't be a lot of money to fund such a festival, Montana Arts Council member David Shaner suggested they tap into grant money that was available at the time for startup projects and applied for a few hundred dollars, with which they gave Manley a small stipend to organize and promote the event.

The first festival was held that same August and immediately proved to be an overwhelming success. The community responded with increasingly positive feedback, having already decided that the festival should become an annual event.

As a result of the festival's success, the Summer Playhouse building fund took on a new name and persona: the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts Foundation. The money raised during the festival was instrumental in funding the construction of the Performing Arts Center and later went to establish a permanent trust fund to maintain building in perpetuity.

More than a decade later, in 1995, BCPA president Larry Jochim broached the subject of transferring responsibility for the event to the Bigfork Retail Merchants Association, which was a sub committee of the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce. The idea was for the BRMA to take over the responsibility of organizing and promoting the festival and also become the new beneficiary of the event.

It didn't take a degree in rocket science to figure out that the festival's growing popularity and success could generate much needed funds for advertising other events, sponsoring community programs and even creating a high school scholarship program.

With hundreds of dedicated volunteers who have contributed to the festival's success, the community has since expanded and improved various aspects of the event. Today, the Festival of the Arts has become a summer tradition for people throughout the Flathead, Montana and the Pacific Northwest, with an attendance in excess of 6,000 people.

The event now features well-over 100 booths that showcase the works of artists and craftsmen, many of whom have earned national and international acclaim.

In fact, the event has grown to such an extent that it takes more than 100 volunteers to pull it off each year, performing jobs that range from promoting the event to judging the artists, from traffic control to booth sitting, and from setting it all up to taking it all down again.

Those volunteers have been planning this year's 30th anniversary Festival of the Arts celebration all year long. That said, it promises to be one of the most memorable events to date.